Monday, August 21, 2006

BA. Greed and Unscrupulous Means (Hons)

Is there no Honour anymore in this world?

At this moment my husband is sitting with our landlord who came to the house with a new contract for us. Previously we were the subtenants of this house but since that man (the main tenant) has gone back to Malaysia, we are taking over this house and so the landlord is here to seal the deal.

The thing is, just before we moved into this house 4 months ago as the subtenants, the landlord informed us personally that if we decide to stay on in this house and take over as the main tenants after the current main tenant leaves, he will maintain the then current rent rate for another year - he was desperate at that time to retain a tenant in the house for another year. But today, he is here with a new contract that states the rent is to be increased by £30. And we were struggling with the initial rent in the first place! And when reminded about his ‘promise’ to maintain the rent – his only answer was, ‘Did I say that? I don’t remember.’ But we remember. And we also remember what he bragged to my husband a few months ago - that he earns £100k+ a year from his engineering job. I'm sure he doesn't remember telling us that either. He doesn't even need that extra £30. But we do.

I ask again, is there no honour anymore in this world?

I mean, I’m not asking for men to fight wars and kill themselves to prove their honour. I just need for people to honour their WORD. Isn’t that the least one could do to show one’s integrity and to show that we are civilised and honourable human beings living in the 21st century?

But I know the answer to my own question, albeit a roundabout one. The answer is; while the question of whether there is still honour in this world remains, there is, certainly, a greater force that controls people nowadays – and that stronger force is GREED.

You will want the highest income you can get from your investments – even if it means lying through your teeth for it – that’s probably my landlord’s motto taught in the school of greed and unscrupulous means.

See, that’s why I love those historical romance books I read (apparently everything comes back to why it's good for me to read these romances, you’re thinking – I can read your minds, see.) The men in these romance books are honourable men, no matter how hamsap or how ‘tormented’ they are at first with some guilt or some memory that they have from their past. These are good men, who knows what’s right and what’s wrong (even if it takes until the end of the book for them to learn it) and will go the extra length to do the right thing. These are men who do not exist in this world anymore, it seems - present bed partner the exception, of course, and these are the men that are sadly, fictional. But why should I read about reality: about deaths and evil men and dead children and poverty and rape and murder and liquid bombs and starvation and problematic families and divorce and hate when I can get a healthy (or should I say unhealthy) dose of it every time I turn on the TV? Oh well. My poor husband will have to get some part time job soon if we want to stay on living in this nice house. Or maybe I can sell something…my books, perhaps (not!)… Or maybe we can find a Malaysian who would like to rent one of our rooms. Anyone out there who’s looking for a room to rent in a nice house in London?

And now, to read that new contract the landlord passed us – to make sure he didn’t add anything else in there that may surprise us in the future – before we resign ourselves to paying that extra amount of rent...P/S: My landlord is NOT Mr Bush.

8 comments:

Same thing happened to me. If it's not on paper, it's useless. People tend to have short spans of amnesia these days. Your experience just shows that lessons learnt in the keparat world can be useful in our daily lives as well.Hope you get a tenant soon.

I think if you threatened to leave, or not threatened, just stated that you have no other choice but to move out unless he recovers from his bout of amnesia or gives a more reasonable rate, he would probably agree, it is not worth for him to have a place vacant even for one week, it makes more sense to have tenants at £30 less than he would desire. Unless, he already has someone lined up in case you decide to move, in which case scrap all the above :). I feel for you, landlords in london, for the most part are a bunch of small people. Hope you resolve the situation to your best interest.

In that case in your position I would be left with no alternative but to kick and stamp my feet on the floor and possibly even lie down in prone position and join in with my fists too... land lords are greedy scum (generally speaking).